Reading Support

I am a supply teacher. I usually cover science lessons where I am happy to teach rather than just sit and babysit. However, this morning, the Year 11 class that I was assigned to are writing exams so I went downstairs to listen to some of the Year 7s (age 11-12) read and to support them.

Here's what I learned.

Marcus Rashford is a favourite amongst this class, and with good reason. He's not only an extremely talented footballer, but he is an all round nice guy with the drive to get things done and the motivation to make positive social changes.

I was listening in turn to two youngsters reading about Marcus Rashford.

The first was a simple biography, relating where he grew up, the poverty he endured, the neighbourhood he grew up in, his rise to junior football star and then to becoming Man of the Match several times at a very young age in the senior game, due to his superlative skills and talents.

This book focuses, in the few pages I was reading with my charge, on his life and the evolution of his football prowess.

We didn't get to the part (if it is in the book) where he campaigned to prolong free school meals for those who needed it beyond the government's planned lockdown scheme. This ensured that over a million youngsters living below the poverty line had access to food despite not attending school during lockdown, where they would have accessed these meals at the school canteen.

The next child I listened to was reading Rashford's autobiography. I expected more of the same.

Remarkably, the autobiography is not about him. Rashford knows his audience - recognises the self doubt, the enormous amount of playground and academic competition, the cliques and social instability, the incredible changes from primary to secondary school. He knows that his readers are insecure, that they want to be like their heroes, he being one of them. He also knows that there is enormous potential for personal growth.

The message of his book is therefore to stop trying to be someone else, to stop striving for the perfect image or achievement, to stop comparing yourself to or competing with, your peers, but just to be the best version of yourself you can be.

"You are only in competition with yourself. So stop comparing yourself to other people"

In those 14 words, Rashford essentially sums up the topic of my book, "Collaboration versus Competition in the Workplace: The Art of Working Together"

tlf

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